It couldn’t be more apt that the world’s greatest footballing event kicks-off in the same week we celebrate the world’s greatest heroes: fathers.

There’s a special brand of love a father shares with his son. And more often than not, this love revolves around sports – the most famous one being football.

With the 2014 FIFA World Cup strutting its samba in Brazil on the same week as father’s day, it seems that the union of fatherhood and sports will be made ever stronger.

The FIFA World Cup was first held in 1930 and has since become the emblem of competitive spirit. Every four years, the world tunes in to see players and nations push their limits to achieve the goals they set out to accomplish – overcoming adversity and personifying perseverance. It is easy to see why fathers advocate the love of sports to their sons.

To a son, fathers are more than mere providers – they are the benchmark of what it means to be a man.

We witness the fighting spirit first hand – the long days and long nights, the struggles between buying your birthday present or balancing the checkbook, or the dilemma of teaching you a harsh lesson or allowing you to learn for yourself. We witness the tenacity, the finesse and the mistakes altogether, in a culmination of unrelenting strength and unwavering authority.

And as the son, we are well aware that we will be in the same position one day – a position that will require us to find steel in the heart when life makes demands on us that are greater than we think we can endure.

Hence the shared affinity for sports.

So as you sit on the couch next to your father this weekend experiencing the most beautiful game in the world, let us not only celebrate the athletic feats we witness on the tube; let us also commemorate the blood, sweat and tears that have been shed in the name of fatherhood.